Making Words: Ladybugs

Making words is a fun way to practice spelling. In this case, I pulled it out to help my 5 year old focus. We have been on break for too long. Everyone is starting to go crazy!

He didn’t exactly want to participate.

He is a beginning reader so this activity takes a lot of help from me. We started with “bug” and changed the beginning sound to make new words. Every time we made a word, he would put a dot (a.k.a. sticker) on the correct ladybug. Here is an example of how the conversation went:

“Let’s make the word “bug” together. What is the first sound you hear in bug?”

“Oh, I know that one Mom. It’s B!” The letter he put on the table was actually a D.

“That one’s a D…here is a B. Okay, we have our first letter. What is the next sound in buuuuuuuug?”

Once we had “bug” created and he had put the sticker on the ladybug (his favorite part) I asked him, “Can you change the first sound in bug to make the word rug?”

We continued working until it looked like he was almost done. Then we worked on making the word “ladybugs”.

First he made the word “bugs”. There were only four letters left. The job of making “lady” would have been a lot easier if I had understood that he was trying to spell the word backwards. He wanted the letter right next to b in “bugs”. Once I figured that out, I was able to help him.

This activity was the perfect length to get him to focus so that he could enjoy the rest of the day…or at least until snack time 🙂

Want a list of all of the words that can be made with the letters in “ladybugs”? Click here!